A former Portage middle school teacher who police said sexted students has
been sentenced to four months in jail, after pleading guilty to child
solicitation.
Bryan L. Tyman, 45--who taught at Fegley Middle School--was originally
charged with two counts of child solicitation and one of vicarious sexual
gratification. Under a previous agreement with Tyman, the Porter County
Prosecuting Attorney’s Office dismissed the latter count in exchange for his
plea to the first two and then recommended a sentence of time served--six
days in the Porter County Jail following his arrest--and formal probation.
All counts are Class D felonies punishable by a term of six months to three
years.
In November, however, Porter Circuit Court Judge Mary Harper rejected that
plea agreement, on the ground that Tyman’s offense warranted more time in
jail than six days.
On Tuesday, Harper found a revised plea agreement more to her liking and
accordingly sentenced to Tyman on the first count of child solicitation to
two years in prison, with all but 132 days suspended and the balance to be
served on formal probation. She then sentenced Tyman on the second count to
two years in prison, will all time suspended. The two sentences are to run
concurrently.
In addition, Harper gave Tyman credit for the six days already served, which
under Indiana Code are doubled when applied to an offender’s sentence. Those
12 days subtracted from the 132 days give Tyman a total jail term of 120
days or four months.
Finally, Harper ordered Tyman to register as a sex offender and to complete
a Project PRO evaluation and treatment as recommended.
In her order, Harper made note of one aggravating factor: Tyman “was an
educator and these were school-age children who were enrolled in the school
system in which he taught.”
Harper also made note of three mitigating factors: Tyman had admitted his
guilt, is “likely to respond well to probation or a short jail term,” and
has no previous criminal history.
Tyman was charged on Feb. 25, 2013, following an investigation which began
after a student “anonymously” alerted School Resource Officer Michael
Candiano to Tyman’s “misconduct” with two juvenile females.
“Through the course of the investigation, it was learned that (Tyman) had
been maintaining a relationship with the previous students through phone
conversations and text messages,” police said. “Recently, he had started
sending messages that were sexually inappropriate in nature. When an
uninvolved student observed a photo he had sent to one of the victim’s
phones, the matter was brought to the attention of Candiano.”
“During an interview with Det. Janis Regnier, (Tyman) confessed to sending a
sexually explicit picture of himself and also asked the students for
pictures of themselves,” police said. “The students did not send pictures of
themselves.”